In Retrospect:

*Saw Lynda Barry at Comic-Con. Had her sign her new book; when she was through, birds were singing and hearts were shot through with arrows on the page. She is such the sweet thing.
*Also: sat through the second half of a presentation about Japanese Bat Man comics from the 60s. Never thought i would see something like that, and it was highly enjoyable. It helps when the person speaking has unbridled enthusiasm ;)
*Ran into a friend, which is always nice; saw some amazing custom wood Ouija boards; purchased a lovely print of a raven/clock thingamabob; ate some crappy soft pretzels. Oh! And had ketchup squirted all over us as we sat on the floor leafing through the day's schedule- turned out that someone had dropped a packet, and a passerby stepped on it, unknowingly causing major trauma for Nat and i. It was almost like Carrie. (Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.)
*And finally, we got to see the first 20 minutes of Bill Plympton's new feature-length animated film, Idiots and Angels. Wow. It was really something... the fact that Tom Waits collaborated with the music didn't hurt, either! Can't wait to see the whole thing. His short Hot Dog was hilarious, as well, one of the high points of my Comic-Con experience.

*I left for Las Vegas the next day by train/bus, to help my mom work her table at an arts & crafts show. Not as much foot traffic as we'd all hoped, but we got to iron out a lot of kinks in the whole process, and met some truly great people. This is good for my mom, as she needs to make some contacts if she wants to get ahead with her business... I think a lot of people just weren't ready for her type of stuff. Most of the booths consisted of homemade candles, or knitting, or jewelry, and of course the requisite painted boards with sweetie-pie slogans like "Sisters: friends for life" and "Simplify". Not quite my ball of wax, but different strokes for different folks. I don't think people understood that my mom makes everything by hand, not just orders them online or something. So frustrating!
There was a freak lightning/thunderstorm early on Saturday morning that just made my day, though... the rest of the weekend the sky was filled with the most unbelievably stunning cumulus clouds. Beautiful.

*Got to see Io passing over the face of Jupiter, just after going to my very first planetarium show. For all who've never been to one of those: i highly recommend it. What a way to ground yourself, yet open up to the majesty and vastness of the universe all at the same time. Whew.

*The other day we were waiting at the bus stop to head over to Balboa Park. A young Italian tourist couple was sitting next to me, and the girl took one look at my legs and made the most disgusting face, which of course was not lost on me. She then said something in a snide tone to her boyfriend, who was standing up finishing his cigarette; he walked over and tried to casually check out my legs, then grimaced as well. (Look, i'm very pale and i don't shave, OK?) They both began laughing and i felt my heart start to explode in my chest... i am not angry very often, truly. But this was more than i could handle. I looked hard at them over my sunglasses and then remarked loudly to Nat how some people can be extremely rude, and that just because you are speaking a foreign language, there are other ways to interpret somebody's meaning. How stupid did they think i was? Finally a third friend came by, and the whole process was repeated: the guy smiling and telling her, and she offering a none-too-subtle glance down. I couldn't take it any more, and said to him (and thereby them), "What is wrong with you?!!"
They all tried to feign innocence, and mumbled in Italian, but still smiled. I strongly resisted the urge to rub my hairy leg all over the smooth, tanned leg of the girl sitting next to me. I'm sure that wouldn't have solved anything. But man, it would have been fun to see the horror on her face.

For now, i will have to be content with the fantasy.